Caldwell was Manning’s quarterback’s coach, and eventually head coach with the Indianapolis Colts from 2002-2011. Caldwell carries the reputation for being one of the coaches who most influenced Manning during his years in Indy.

As the head coach for the Lions, now Caldwell is now turning his attention to another promising, young quarterback: Matthew Stafford. Although Caldwell will be the head coach, he’ll have a prominent role in Stafford’s development.

“He’s going to be very hands-on,” Mayhew said, via Birkett. “He’s going to have a quarterback coach trained on the things that he wants done, and he’s still going to be very hands-on even though he’s the head coach in terms of developing Matthew. And that’s one thing that we talked about in the interview that really impressed me about him and one thing that I was excited about was that he’s not going to delegate that to somebody and step back and say, ‘I’m the head coach, I’m the overseer.’ ”

In preparation for his interview with the Lions, Caldwell said he watched every throw Stafford made last season. The two then briefly met at the Lions’ facility.

“We sat down and just talked a little bit,” Caldwell said. “I think there was some reports out there that we sat down and watched film, but that was not the case. We just sort of talked about some of the things that I had seen on film and things of that nature throughout the years. … We also talked about what it was going to take to improve. And we just hit on a few things.”

For a quarterback who has talent but could still improve, this is the type of coaching that will help the most. If Caldwell’s style was good enough for Manning to make a cold call to the Lions, it should be good enough for Stafford, who has been mistake-prone during his five years in the NFL.